Bisexual Individuals and Family
One of the issues that bisexual individuals face in the communities today is family issues. Over the past two decades, the GLBT individuals have been experiencing many problems in their families. Many organizations created to serve on behalf of GLBT communities have increased globally. However, the GLBT communities have been one of the contested issues in many nations. Regardless of bisexuality, many families provide narratives that profoundly shape people’s lives. The family involves all kind of relationships and they are determined on how individuals interact with others in the world. Recently, the public began to notice the GLBT families though their existence as a family has been documented over the decades. Thus, the psychologists strive in order to recognize the effects and challenges that bisexual individuals face in their families.
Popular conceptualizations of bisexual individuals usually present intimate relationships and human sexuality. This may involve either heterosexism or homosexuals that are being emotionally attracted to either male or female. The research carried out on GLBT indicates that bisexual individuals have more fluid that the other sexual groups (Chernin and Johnson, 2002).
These groups describe themselves as being emotionally attracted to their opposite sex and mostly segregate themselves from the GLT groups (Messinger and Morrow, 2006). They describe themselves as committed to the relationships and their families unlike the gay, lesbians and transgender communities. In fact, most individuals are neither homosexual nor heterosexual. In addition, gender is considered by most bisexual individuals unlike to most gays, lesbians and transgender individuals. Bisexuals have the tendency of discriminating others from the relationship unlike the other counterparts.
The gays, lesbians and transgender individuals are affected by the interaction from the bisexual individuals because of the common misperceptions. Most bisexuals prefer themselves as the committed people in the relationships and are more gender based unlike the other groups. Actually, bisexuality cannot be the transitional change for heterosexism as contrary to these common misperceptions (Shidlo and Schroeder, 2002). Not even a single pattern that exists between bisexual individuals because some may have experienced both same or opposite sex relationships. However, some individuals may feel they do not belong in the heterosexual while others feel more identified with one or more than one partners. This creates many impacts in the society such as prejudice, hatred or some families may break because of these issues.
The implications associated with identity development, the coming out processes and internalized heterosexism is the misunderstandings or lack of acknowledging bisexual identity. In addition, family relationship issues may arise and this will often emerge because of contemplating strategies and legal amendment. Consequently, oppression issues may arise and this will affect the heterosexism because oppressions are associated with gender identity (Messinger, 2006). Another issue of discrimination may arise in the political, social and economic fields. The bisexual individuals who are legally married can be able to access the rights or privileges provided in the society. However, many bisexuals in the current society are not legally married because some are either single or cohabiting thus; they are being denied access of privileges in the society. Further, they may be discriminated in their marriages and even bisexuals in the same sex relationship usually face prejudice same as those of gays, lesbians and transgender.
The practical implication on the research carried out in the United States indicates that there is a great different between GLBT and family upbringing. The psychological interventions with the family including spouses and children of GLBT seemed to be different. Many issues were raised on family affairs of these subgroups through use of family-focused approach. It was discovered that children raised in the families of bisexuals especially those who are legally married and who enjoys legal rights tends to bring up their children in good ways. However, it was argued that a number of married bisexuals have problems in raising their families due to inadequate financial issues comparing to their counterparts who were discovered to be individuals from high social class. The issues that social workers face when assessing families of bisexuals is the question of addressing internalized stereotypes that affect the behaviors of bisexual individuals.
The research carried out by psychologists indicates that bisexual parents are capable of raising strong families and they have better parental awareness skills unlike the heterosexual couples. It was found out that the biological mothers have higher parental-child interactions in the family than the non-biological parents. It was discovered that the biological mothers were committed to their families and were more capable of childrearing unlike the parents in heterosexual families (Goldfried and Goldfried, 2001). This context led to discrimination in that many family policies did not support heterosexual coupe especially in the case of legal custody for children and even some parents lack legal rights in their families. The society recognizes legal marriages thus bilateral individuals face many challenges when it comes to property ownership and enjoying of privileges.
In addition, the 2000 census data carried out in the United States indicated that bisexuals couples of deferent race and ethnic subgroups face different challenges in the society. Much research has been done focusing on children in heterosexual and bisexuals marriages. There are primarily concern issues that have been raised considering legal and communal welfare structures with regard for the safety of children raised in bisexual marriages with the other heterosexual marriages. These issues include gender roles and identifications whereby some issues especially the roles played by both parents become an issue (Rust, 2001). Another issue is personal growth of these children and their social experiences. It was discovered that children raised in the married families tends to perform socially better in their gender roles than those raise in single families or in gay marriages.
Psychologists strives hard in order to recognize the challenges that bisexual individuals face in their families and are thus encouraged to investigate these issues when they are with their clients. For instance, denying couple access to marriage may lead to barriers such as legal rights denial especially for the same sex marriages. In addition, the heterosexual partners may not economically benefit from the social services provided by certain states. The psychologists are on the same time urged to identify the distinctive forces and resilience of bisexual families. They are encouraged to recognize different identities such as ethnicity, class, religion, culture and racism (Sue and Sue, 2003). This is essential because different groups of people have different perspectives towards bisexual families. They have various experiences concerning bisexual families and many support this marriage while others oppose it regardless of their beliefs and experiences.
In some families, bisexual marriages may not be a big issue whereas others may consider it as an issue. In most cases, lack of intimate acknowledgement may distance bisexual couples from their original families. Even if families may accept them, the acceptance may be a matter of tolerance but not the true acceptance. Therefore, a network of many friends will alternatively constitute the composition or their family structure, which are not based on biological relationships. These families provide social networking and they may value them more important than even their own families. Thus, it is essential for psychologists to understand the value of bisexual family structures. They are urged to recognize and take into consideration those challenges that they face in the society.
The application of gay or gender affirmative practice in this subpopulation would be built upon cultural aptitude and empowerment practice (Messinger, 2006). The affirmative practices will enable gays to understand the gender roles in the society. This would be achieved through good rapport between gay individuals and the social workers. They would evaluate and employ effective methods that will enable them to achieve their goals. In addition, they would use their knowledge and skills in order to empower their clients (Crisp, 2005). Affirmative practices should be well formulated in a way that would enable gays to be informed on their roles based on gender in the society. Guidance and counseling will create changes overtime and these changes will result to the best practices especially in the part of gender roes.
The community resources that would benefit this subpopulation include, first, the GLBTA resource centre hosts the Bi 101 workshop in America as one of the community that helps people to learn about bisexual issues. This community carries out education programs on sex orientation and carries out events, which are open to the public. They provide opportunities to many people in order to enable them learn and become acquainted with knowledge and skills about issues related to bisexuality. In addition, this community workshop focuses on the bisexuality issues across all cultures and from the historical period to the present thus provides solutions to overcome them. Bi 101 Workshop is among the community resources based in America and their aim is to educate the mass worldwide on bisexual and other sex orientation issues.
Secondly, DC Bi Women is another community resource center based in Washington, D.C and their goal is to create an acceptable and encouraging environment to overcome bisexual issues. The group targets bisexual women but it is open to anybody who wants to learn and understand the importance of avoiding bisexual problems in the future. It empowers women and affirms the existence of the bisexual identity. Lastly, Bi Men’s Alliance of DC (BIMA DC) is another group based in Washington, D.C and their aim is to educate people and carry out research studies on bisexuality. This group is open to anyone who wants to study regardless of their status, sexual preferences or relationships status. Their members in this groups ranges from single, married, separate or divorced, dating and even the monogamous and polygamous.
I could incorporate the use of the these resources as collateral supports in counseling through forming allies and creating a broad base support in all sectors to help the communities to become aware of the issues that arise fro bisexuality. Many bisexual individuals have been encountering problems such as depression, anxiety, stress, violence and even problems in their relationships. Thus, with the formation of allies will enable us to come up with better collateral supports and guidance and counseling on how to cope up in the families (Perez, DeBord and Bieschke, 2000).
In conclusion, psychologists strive in order to recognize the effects and challenges that bisexual individuals face in their families. Many bisexual individuals face challenges in the society such as discriminations and some are denied their legal rights. The research carried out by the psychologists revealed that bisexuals couples of deferent race and ethnic subgroups face different challenges in the society. In addition, the census data of 2000 in America indicated that married couples were capable of raising strong families and they have better parental awareness skills unlike the heterosexual couples. Consequently, it was revealed that the implication associated with identity development is lack of acknowledging bisexual identity. Thus, many organizations such BIMA DC, DC Bi Women and Bi 101 workshop were put in place in order to provide education and counseling programs to enable bisexual individuals to overcome their problems.
References
Chernin, J. N., & Johnson, M. R. (2002). Affirmative psychotherapy and counseling for lesbians
and gay men. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Crisp, C. (2005). Homophobia and use of gay affirmative practice in a sample of social workers
and psychologists. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 18(1), 51-70.
Goldfried, M. R. and Goldfried, A. P. (2001). The importance of parental support in the lives of
gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57: 681–693
Messinger, L., & Morrow, D. F.(2006). Case studies on sexual orientation and gender
expression in social work practice. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Messinger, L. (2006). Sexual orientation and gender expression in social work practice:
Working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. New York, NY: Columbia
University Press.
Rust, P. (2001). Two Many and Not Enough: The Meanings of Bisexual Identities.
Journal of Bisexuality, 31: 58.
Perez, R., DeBord, K. A., Bieschke, K. J. (2000). Handbook of Counseling and
Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Clients. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Perrin, E. C., and the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health.
(2002,). Technical Report: Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex
Parents. Pediatrics, 109(2): 341-344.
Shidlo, A., & Schroeder, M. (2002). Changing sexual orientation: A consumers’ report.
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 33(3), 249-259.
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. New
York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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